Sheepish

Wanderer_ said:

Everything looks good. I honestly don’t think that Luke backing off when Rey ignites the lightsaber is a sign of weaknesse. He bested her easily in a duel.

Agreed, 100%

I saw it as Luke backing off as he fears Rey is falling to the dark side. He sees Ben Solo’s rage in her, and he fears history was repeating itself…the whole reason he went into hiding. He isn’t afraid she would strike him down. He’s afraid that she wants to, and he’s failed yet another who wanted his help.

I’m sure this has already been mentioned somewhere, but adding Kylo finding Palpatine on Exogul as the final scene of TLJ seems like a good thing to do. Maybe play Palp’s broadcast at the start of THAT film, but only to Kylo Ren (even as a voice in his head, which would tie nicely to the “every voice in your head” line). And I think inserting audio clips of Han’s death scene into TLJ as if they’re sporadically being heard in Kylo Ren’s head (like right before he smashes his helmet, for example) would probably make revisiting the memory in TROS more impactful, and it could show that the Emperor hadn’t counted on one particular voice being in Ben’s head.

The wayfinder stuff should be cut, too. If there’s a way to seamlessly pull it off. In fact, the entire opening montage of TROS should probably be cut.

snooker said:

There was a massive missed opportunity to have R2 tell all the stories of their adventures to 3PO in the final scenes. Can you imagine how cute/heartbreaking that would be?? aaghh

It wouldn’t be impossible to insert 3PO and R2 into that last shot with Rey, or even have them wandering the desert themselves after the Rey bit (utilizing scenes from the original Star Wars could be fun here), and have 3PO ask the question, and R2 just beeps. 3PO responds with something like “Oh, my. How long ago?”, and R2 beeps again. “How old AM I?”

And have the conversation fade, with maybe a line from 3PO indicating R2 is recounting the podrace or some event from Episode I.

I actually just got chills thinking about that.

Speaking specifically to the ending of IX, I’d like to cut 3PO getting his memory back from an R2 backup file. Instead, keep the memory wiped, and at the very end of the film, have him be with Rey when she goes to Tatooine. He watches silently as she buries the lightsabers, and everything. And instead of Rey igniting her own saber, have 3PO ask what it all means. Then, Rey smiles or something and starts walking away, and 3PO follows. “Well, you see…a long, long time ago…”

Then, her speech fades into the distance as the music swells, and we pan up to the binary stars before the film ends.

This way, all of the episodes seem like part of a retelling to 3PO from Rey. Sort of.

Maybe a little cheesy, but I don’t think it couldn’t be done.

This is how I’m handling the infamous midichlorian scene (timestamped to skip me talking about everything most of you already know about why I’d want to edit this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrObYxM9dzs&t=507s

Basically, instead of Anakin asking about midichlorians and Qui-Gon giving his whole explanation about how he has microscopic organisms in his blood that channel the Force like radio waves, he just comforts Anakin’s confusion and tells him “when you learn to quiet your mind…you’ll hear the force.”

As the others have pointed out, I’ve started posting video updates on my YouTube channel, with me sort of introducing each clip with an explanation of why I wanted to edit that particular clip, and my thought process in the editing itself. All of my Episode I clips from this edit will be uploaded there, as well as some clips from some of my other editing projects.

I’ll still be checking in here every now and then as the project progresses, but I feel like the video format is ideal for some of my ramblings, and I can sort of provide real-time commentary on the clips themselves.

Here is one of the newer clips I haven’t shared with you all here yet. I’ve basically removed the “chosen one” element from Anakin’s character arc, as well as the whole immaculate conception. With my edit, it’s sort of implied that his dad simply wasn’t in the picture. I go into more detail in the video, if you’d like to check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfZAQ8Zu0bM

Hopefully you enjoy it.

SparkySywer said:

Is there a sharpening filter on the video?

The “Most girls seem nice” line was also really funny, though. Loved it!

Yes, there is a slight sharpening effect. Good eye! And thanks! It felt like something Watto might say haha.

snooker said:

Just make sure the sharpness filter dosent go over burned in subtitles, cause it makes it look like hot trash.

There are no hardcoded subtitles here, so they aren’t affected by it.

littlev87 said:

Would it be possible that when Padme says, “you’re a slave?” cut to the scene where they both look over then to jar jar hijinks with the pit droid, and back to ankain and padme when anakin says." wouldn’t have lasted this long if I wasn’t so good at building things."

I think this makes him sound more cynical about being a slave and like he has come to terms with it more, which i think would help to “age” him up, plus the normal line is cringe inducing every time.

Like i said I’m not sure this would work smoothly, but anything to get rid of “I’m and person and my name is anakin.” its just too aggressive and contrived.

Hey, that’s not bad! I might throw a mock up cut of this and see if you guys like it. I don’t hate the Anakin line, but I get what you mean.

Oh yea, the passwords for any vimeo preview I do from this point forward is “fanedit”. Probably should have mentioned that.

And I think you’re right about the audio. I had increased the gain for the dialogue for editing purposes, and I guess I never set it back. But you get the idea.

And agreed, basically from the record scratch through the whole Jar Jar bit needs new audio. That is more of a place holder at the moment. I uploaded that clip mostly to show the music in Watto’s shop, and the pitch changes with anakin and padme.

Here is a clip of Watto’s introduction with the new music. An old version of this was on my YouTube channel, but this has been properly mixed, and both Anakin’s and Padme’s voices have been pitch-adjusted to close the age gap a bit. Anakin’s has been deepened slightly, while Padme’s is a bit higher. I tried to make it as natural sounding as possible. Jar-Jar’s voice has been omitted for this clip.

https://vimeo.com/282625310

I had also attempted to post the first 10 minutes of the final edit, but I apparently hit my vimeo limit. I may try to compress it to fit, but regardless, by next Tuesday, you’ll see what I’ve been up to with the new music cues (well, old music cues from the 70s repurposed for this) and voices.

Anyway, as far as my absence goes, it began as a voluntary hiatus from the project, as it was getting so tedious I began neglected other things. And then due to a literal force of nature, the edit had to go on the back burner until the time was right to make my dramatic reemergence. I hoped I wasn’t totally forgotten here, so I’m glad to see that there’s still interest in the project. I’m going to do my best to deliver. I am alive, I promise.

BIG update coming later this evening. All your questions will be answered. Thanks for the support.

V

Okay, slight progress update. Sorry to be bouncing in an out sporadically, but the delays in production are for the greater good (I hope).

While I had every intention of posting the screener for you guys (I know, I know), I had a pretty profound bit of inspiration that I decided to incorporate into my edit, which in turn, postponed the screener and gave me a fair bit of work to complete.

As those of you following this thread will know, I’ve been replacing certain music cues throughout the film. Well, truth be told, I was unhappy with a few of the pieces I had chosen. Something was just…missing, tonally, from the film. I love Williams’ score, but I wanted to try and recapture the lightning of the OT. And intertwining Williams’ work with that of other non-Williams Star Wars composers just didn’t work as organically as I had hoped. Even sprinkling in pieces of music from the OT seemed to leave a weird taste in my mouth, at times. I wasn’t sure if it was just “editor’s fatigue” of working with the same scenes over and over again and getting tired of the sounds, or if I was realizing that my initial plan was failing, creatively.

I’ve been discussing this with another editor (who we will call “Joe” for conversation’s sake), and he was able to articulate to me what the void was that I couldn’t quite explain. 70’s John Williams is a different composer than 90’s John Williams. And by that I mean, sprinkling bits of 70’s JW Star Wars into 90’s JW Star Wars was jarringly noticeable. It wasn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but I felt I could do better. After all, I want this to be as definitive of an edit (at least, according to my own taste) as possible, so I decided to explore other musical options. I wanted to recreate the Star Wars feeling, without delivering a carbon-copy of A New Hope’s soundtrack, but with bits of TPM sprinkled in (which is what it was turning into).

So Joe recommended I listen to a few soundtracks composed by 60s-70s era John Williams, from some of his lesser-known films. The idea was that around the time of A New Hope, John Williams had composed pieces of music that very much had that retro Star Wars feel, but they hadn’t gotten the exposure of his more popular films. Well, I followed Joe’s advice and stumbled across some great gems of music that I have since decided to use in my cut of Episode I. And I’ll say, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve found. I’m hoping that the older music, coupled with the new color grading and film grade, will help give Episode I the tone I want. I’ll post a clip soon (I really will, I promise) to show you what I mean.

Also, I tend to think ahead quite a bit, and I think for my Episode II, I’ll be using bits of Williams’ Dracula score for the Dooku scenes. I’m sure someone has had the idea before, but I think it would be really cool. I may try to hint at the Dracula score in the Dooku scene I’ve added in Episode I, but I haven’t decided yet.

Anyway, the edit is still coming together. Piece by piece.

Progress update: I’m getting a new microphone to re-record the Jar Jar and Nass dubs, as the quality in the cuts I’ve made prior to now is a bit wonky, and I simply don’t like it. The perfectionist in me is having trouble showing an unfinished product. However, I do want to show you guys what I’ve done so far in a relatively cohesive manner. So what I’ll be doing is releasing a screener with a placeholder voice for Jar Jar, Nass, and the Gungans. I’ve made something that is fairly close to what the end result will sound like, so I’m happy enough to release it for previews. I’m rendering the cut as we speak, so your patience will be rewarded soon.

Thanks again for waiting. You guys are awesome. I’ll release it with a disclosure explaining any differences the cut may or may not have with the final version, and any concerns I have with the cut that I’m hoping to get opinions on.

Everyone who has commented here and/or PM’d me will receive an invite.

The Ritty said:

Midichlorians are real people - get over it, they’re just movies lol

Why do people insist on just removing all the things they didn’t like. Midichlorians? Took that out. Jar Jar Binks? Edited him out. You can’t betray Lucas’ vision for his movies. So many people get this wrong. Just cutting stuff out doesn’t make the movie any better. Like so many fan edits descriptions just remove jar jar - he’s a main character.

Now, I haven’t seen this cut cuz I won’t watch anyone else’s but mine but I can tell just by reading what people ‘did’ to the films. Why are people so obsessed with nonsense like midichlorians? You know why no one mentioned them in the original trilogy? Cuz it was just yoda & obi wan left. Seriously, why even bother with that explanation. Who’s got the time. Luke’s the only ‘jedi’ left. Who’s got time for all that science crap after 900 yrs. What Yoda and Ben said is still true. The force is all around us - binds us, err penetrates us… That’s all true of the ‘scientific’ explanation of midichlorians. I’m fine with the bacteria explanation. F

I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade lol or be a d-i-c-k. People just cut stuff out they hate or do silly things like edit all 3 prequels into one movie or redo effects and sound…do you get paid to do this? No. Who cares if you fixed effects and edited the sound and blah blah blah

If you didn’t FIX THE MOVIE, it’s doesn’t matter. You should service Lucas’ vision and try to help make it better. The STORY comes first. That’s all that matters, not trying to prove hpw amazing you are or take over someone else’s baby. Remember that.

P.S.

If you take out the midichlorians, then Anakin doesn’t exist. Plus they’re referenced in all 3 prequels.

“A Virgence you say?”
“It is possible he was CONCIEVED by the midichlorians.”
“You’re speaking of the prophecy of the chosen one?”

Take out the midichlorians and all this has no meaning. Just sayin 😉

So…no invite for you?

I’ll be sending out invites soon. I’m re-encoding the screener to fix a weird stutter it was doing.

Everyone who has expressed interest will be sent a PM.

SparkySywer said:

I would love to be in on the screening, if that’s possible.

Definitely possible!

What I’ll probably do is upload the screener to Vimeo and PM the password to everyone in this topic who has expressed interest in previewing it. I was originally going to limit access to maybe four or five people, but I don’t want to leave anyone out, and it might help me to have more eyes on the project.

I was just messaging someone about the preview date. I don’t have a specific date yet, but I was thinking doing it sometime during the week of the 11th-17th. This will give me enough time to work on some of the audio issues I’m having. And if I’m still having problems at that point, I’ll just go ahead and upload it anyway and see what you all think.

Karl Katarn said:

Sheepish said:

(looks around nervously)

Not quite yet. Soon though.

All good sheepish. We’re a patient bunch

And I thoroughly appreciate that.

By the way (question for everyone), I’ve got two options to present to you for the rough cut screening. Would you rather:

1. A screening in the next day or two with everything ready, minus the audio tracks for Jar Jar and Nass (with subtitles present)

or

2. A complete screening with the audio tracks for Jar Jar and Nass, but not for another week or two.

I’m having a lot of issues with the audio for these two characters, which is the main reason I took some time off of working on this edit (I was just tired of dealing with it and needed a break). I just can’t seem to get it right.

If you’re cool with the lack of gungan voices, I could have a screening ready in the next couple of days, just for you to preview everything else while I figure out what to do about them.

Thoughts?

(looks around nervously)

Not quite yet. Soon though.

Jp4195 said:

When will the preview be and how can one watch it ?

Hopefully sometime next week. And I’m thinking I’ll do a private vimeo link and post the password in this thread. If not vimeo, it’ll be dropbox or something like that.

natedeug said:

oh man oh man oh man. Is there any way I can get in on the preview?

Absolutely. I was going to limit it to just a few people, but there seems to be enough interest to warrant an open invite.

My reasoning for originally wanting just a few viewers was…well, in case there are any glaring errors I missed, or if something doesn’t have the same effect I’d hoped for, I’d rather a smaller group of people catch it for me to fix in the final release. In other words, I wouldn’t want someone watching it expecting a polished cut.

Though, I suppose, anyone who doesn’t want to get spoiled before the final release can simply wait it out. Most of the people here seem smart enough to know what they’re watching when they watch it.

This might be overly optimistic, but I think I’ll have a rough cut ready for previews next week.

fingers crossed

Hey, sorry guys. Life’s been keeping me from posting anything significant lately. I’m going to make an effort to be more active on these boards, though. Starting tomorrow. Haha.

Smithers said:

That would be really cool! I’d be down

Consider yourself invited

liamnotneeson said:

I’m definitely down for that too

And likewise 😃

I’ll probably open it to one or two others as well, once the first cut is complete. More info on that soon.

I actually do have a few updates, but I’ve been taking a short hiatus from the project, just to regain some of my sanity. I won’t mention anything until I have clips available to back it up, but you’ll be able to see some progress within the next week. Honestly, it’s essentially finished, minus one major change I’m implementing and a few smaller tweaks.

I was actually planning to possibly invite a few of you to a rough screening (probably through a private Vimeo link or something) just to get some feedback and get a new set of eyes on the cut to catch any mistakes or weird jumps I may have overlooked.

Definitely interested in seeing this!